Wood engraving of the Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, New York, 1870 (Source: Wikimedia Commons) But the nurses neither gave them blankets nor something to drink. That night, Nellie listened to the cries of women complaining about the unbearable cold and begging for a sip of water. The women were then escorted to their rooms, and the doors were locked. Maynard, who was protesting against such treatment, was told by the nurses: “There isn’t much fear of hurting you. When she looked around, she saw that other patients were blue from the cold. Nellie was stripped down against her will, scrubbed, and rinsed with ice-cold water. Then, it was time for a bath which the women got only once a week. Nellie was served bread, butter, prunes, and watered-down tea. They made the beds, scrubbed the floors, washed the clothes, and even cleaned the nurse’s rooms.Īt dinner time, the women stood in a line for food, and those who went out of line got smacked over the head by the nurses. Contrary to what most thought, it was the patients and not the staff who kept the institution clean. Field, refuse to listen to me or give me a chance to prove my sanity.”Īfter lunch, it was time to work. They will be few, though, if all the doctors, as Dr. “…as we have been sent here we will have to be quiet until we find some means of escape. Mayard pleaded with the doctors to make her take insanity tests, but no one listened to her. When Nellie asked Mayard why she was in the Insane Asylum, the woman explained how she was suffering from nervous debility and that she was not insane. Later that day, Nellie met Tillie Mayard, whom she described as a smart and sane woman. But the nurses replied how it is a rule in the institution that heating only gets turned on in October and how the patients have to endure.Īmerican journalist Nellie Bly (Source: Wikimedia Commons) Then, a doctor came to examine the women in the room and remarked how it was so cold that all of them could get pneumonia. At 7 a.m., she was given cold chicken broth. The next morning, at 6 a.m., the nurses pulled the covers from Nellie’s bed and told her to wake up. Her bed was hard with a dent in the middle, and the journalist laid awake all night because the chatter and stomping of the nurses were so loud. On her first night at Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum, Nellie was given a long, thin gown, her clothes were labeled and taken away, and she was placed in a bitterly cold room with locked windows. One doctor even described her as “positively demented.” She talked and behaved normally, but to her surprise, the more normal she acted, the crazier she was perceived by the doctors and nurses. Once inside, Nellie was not pretending she was insane. After she and her editor made preparations for the “mission,” Nellie went to a women’s boarding house, acted insanely, and was sent to an Insane Asylum.
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The Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum in New York was the one Nellie Bly chose. “Ten Days in a Mad-House” by Nellie Bly (Source: Wikipedia)